Naples (AsiaNews) – The faithful’s shared responsibility to evangelisation and the work of all those who are active in the missions were recalled by Benedict XVI today, the World Day for Missions.  The Pope spoke of this during his Angelus address, delieverd in Naples, where he is on a one day pastoral visit.

The city’s problems – first and foremost unemployment and violence – were evoked by Benedict XVI during mass celebrated in the central Plebiscito Square, in front of a multicoloured carpet of umbrellas and raincoats, protecting a crowd of over 40 thousand faithful from an unremitting rain.  Among those present was the Lebanese Patriarch Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir, in Naples to take part in a conference organized by the Saint Egidio community, which the leader of the Lebanese Council of Ulemas will also be attending.  The Pope will meet with the conference participants, above all Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, during the course of his visit to Naples.

Speaking to the people of Naples the Pope urged them to turn to prayer.  “Faith – he said – assures us that God is listening to our prayers and that he will answer them when he deems it opportune, even if our daily experiences seem to counter this.  In a certain way, when we are faced with some of the stories making the news, or even the many difficulties which often make up our daily life and which the papers never speak about, the ancient prophets cry to God rises spontaneously to our lips: ‘How long, oh Lord, must I cry and you not hear, to you I raise my voice: «Violence!» and you do not come to my aid?’ (Ab 1,2). The answer to this heartfelt plea is one and one only: God cannot change things without our conversion, and our true conversion begins with the ‘cry’ of the soul which implores forgiveness and salvation.  Christian prayer – he concluded – is therefore not an expression of fatalism and inertia; actually it is the direct opposite of evading reality and self consolation: it is strength and hope, it is the maximum expression of faith in God’s power who is Love that never abandons us”.

And in his address before the Angelus prayer the pope underlined that it is the spreading of this very message which gives sense to today’s celebration of Mission Sunday, which he recalled, “has a most meaningful message: ‘All of the Church for all of the world’.  Ever single Church – he continued – has a shared responsibility in evangelizing all humanity and this cooperation between Churches was augmented by Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Fidei donum, 50years ago. Do not let us fail in our material and spiritual support for all of those who work on the front line of the missions: priests, religious, and lay, who all too often meet with grave obstacles in their work, even at times with persecution.  Let us give up our prayer intentions – he concluded – to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who during the month of October we love to invoke by the name with which she is honoured in the nearby sanctuary in Pompeii: Queen of the Holy Rosary”.